Michelle Young, 49, won a £20million payout after a six-year courtroom fight, but declared the sum a ‘disgrace’.

She insisted her ex-husband, known as a ‘fixer for the super-rich’, was worth ‘billions’ as the judge ruled he had hidden £45million from the court.

But Mr Young, a friend of Simon Cowell and Topshop boss Sir Philip Green, insisted he was penniless and bankrupt, with debts of £28million.

His body was found by horrified residents in Marylebone on Monday afternoon. He had fallen 60ft on to the iron railings and police moved quickly to hide the distressing scene from onlookers.

Firefighters had to cut through the railings with an angle grinder before the body could be removed.

Neighbours said Mr Young had moved into the duplex apartment a few months ago with his American girlfriend Noelle Reno, 30, a reality TV star.

Gary Sutton 57, who was working nearby when Mr Young fell, said: ‘It was a horrific scene. The police were visibly shocked - one said it was the worst thing he had seen on the job. It was all very distressing.’

Another witness said: ‘The police had covered the body but I could see from behind that he was on the spike because I could see his feet dangling towards the basement floor. It was horrible.’

Mr Young built up a substantial business empire and owned assets including a home in London, a £21million Oxfordshire mansion and residences around the globe.

The son of a former Dundee FC star, he was once said to be worth £400million and travelled the world by private jet.

But he claimed to have suffered a financial catastrophe in the years after the end of his 17-year marriage to Mrs Young, with whom he had two children.

Mr Young offered his wife a £300million settlement in 2009. But the next year he claimed he had been bankrupted by a disastrous deal and could not pay £27,500-a-month maintenance for his ex-wife and their daughters, Scarlet, 21, and Sasha, 19.

Over the next five years, Mrs Young grappled for what she saw as her fair share of her ex husband’s wealth.

She demanded half his assets, claiming he was worth ‘a few billion pounds at least’ but had hidden his cash in a series of secret investments. In January last year, Mr Young was jailed for six months for refusing to disclose full details of his wealth to the court.

Miss Reno, an entrepreneur and model who is originally from Seattle, stood by him after he was jailed. In an interview earlier this year, she said the loss of her partner’s wealth ‘kills him’.

She added: “He still can’t deal with it. It has been so traumatic for him.”

Handing down his ruling in the divorce case last November, Mr Justice Moor said he could find only £45million and ordered Mr Young to pay £20million within 28 days.

He then launched an attack on the Youngs, saying he felt ‘nothing but sympathy’ for their two children, and criticising the couple for failing to be ‘child-focused’.

A Met Police spokesman said: “A man, believed to be aged in his early 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene. The death is not being treated as suspicious at this time.